The Sociological Initiatives Foundation has named Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) of Chicago, Illinois the 2010 recipient of the Leo P. Chall Award. The Chall award recognizes exemplary research projects funded by the foundation. It honors organizations that successfully link research with social action, thereby strengthening community organizations and influencing public policy. Continue Reading »

SUCCESS STORIES

Evidence-based practice is a hot topic in the nonprofit sector. Foundations and nonprofit organizations are eager to define what works with more precision. The concept comes from the field of medicine and suggests that clinical decisions made by doctors should be backed up by data.

The concept makes intuitive sense but is actually quite rare in practice.  In the field of medicine, for example, authoritative sources ranging from the National Academy of Sciences to the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment have estimated that over half of clinical practice in medicine are based on concepts that have not been proven. Continue Reading »

Our movement is not just about changing laws. It’s about changing hearts and minds.
–Deivid Ribiero.

Young people have helped shape all of the major struggles for social justice of the modern era. As in the past, young people are starting to figure more prominently in recent efforts to reform immigration and increase access to higher education. Continue Reading »